Florez Juan Manuel, Shah Manan, Moraud Eduardo Martin, Wurth Sophie, Baud Laetitia, Von Zitzewitz Joachim, van den Brand Rubia, Micera Silvestro, Courtine Gregoire, Paik Jamie
IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2017 Feb;25(2):107-118. doi: 10.1109/TNSRE.2016.2535352. Epub 2016 Mar 18.
Robotic exoskeletons provide programmable, consistent and controllable active therapeutic assistance to patients with neurological disorders. Here we introduce a prototype and preliminary experimental evaluation of a rehabilitative gait exoskeleton that enables compliant yet effective manipulation of the fragile limbs of rats. To assist the displacements of the lower limbs without impeding natural gait movements, we designed and fabricated soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs). The exoskeleton integrates two customizable SPAs that are attached to a limb. This configuration enables a 1 N force load, a range of motion exceeding 80 mm in the major axis, and speed of actuation reaching two gait cycles/s. Preliminary experiments in rats with spinal cord injury validated the basic features of the exoskeleton. We propose strategies to improve the performance of the robot and discuss the potential of SPAs for the design of other wearable interfaces.
机器人外骨骼可为神经疾病患者提供可编程、一致且可控的主动治疗辅助。在此，我们介绍一种康复步态外骨骼的原型及初步实验评估，该外骨骼能够对大鼠脆弱的肢体进行柔顺而有效的操控。为了在不妨碍自然步态运动的情况下辅助下肢的位移，我们设计并制造了软气动执行器（SPA）。该外骨骼集成了两个可定制的SPA，它们附着在肢体上。这种配置能够实现1 N的力负载、在主轴上超过80 mm的运动范围以及达到每秒两个步态周期的驱动速度。对脊髓损伤大鼠的初步实验验证了该外骨骼的基本特性。我们提出了提高机器人性能的策略，并讨论了SPA在设计其他可穿戴接口方面的潜力。
